Vauxhall has been through a barren spell in the Fleet News Awards.

Not since the last generation Zafira collected honours at the 2007 ceremony has the company won a model trophy (although it was named fleet manufacturer of the year in 2010).

The Zafira kick-started the compact seven-seat MPV sector when the first-generation model was launched in 1999, ushering in a new era of fold flat flooring and innovative seating configurations.

With the Zafira Tourer, Vauxhall has a produced a noticeably larger car which offers even greater interior space for passengers and luggage alike.

It’s performing well since its launch in 2011, according to Vauxhall fleet sales director James Taylor. Sales last year were 3,315, with 37% going to the corporate sector (by comparison, the Zafira sold 18,401, 68% to fleets).

The Zafira Tourer takes a 20% share in its true fleet sector, with drivers attracted by the low benefit-in-kind rates thanks to its sub-120g/km of CO2 diesel engine.

Later this year comes a new 109g/km 1.6-litre CDTi engine offering fuel efficiency of 68.9mpg.

It’s a Euro6 unit so will come with a price premium, but this is offset for wholelife cost calculations by the tax, National Insurance and fuel price savings.

Fleet News: Changes to the capital allowance levels this month put greater focus on low emission cars. Is
Vauxhall ready?

James Taylor:  The changes to the write-down allowances will help Vauxhall.

We have a large percentage of sales in the 110-130g/km band that are largely unaffected. I believe this will open up a gap between premium and mainstream that will be to our advantage.

We have more engines and powertrain families coming that will bring further CO2 savings. You have to drive down CO2 emissions by 5-10g/km a year to stay competitive.

FN: How much lower are CO2 emissions likely to go for diesel and petrol cars before the technology becomes
too costly?

JT: There are more savings to come but they won’t be as cost-effective as the ones made to date. Improvements will also come in transmissions that will deliver savings on CO2 as well as fuel consumption.

In the near term we see Ampera as the solution and the announcements in the Budget have given us more confidence.

We’ve sold 250 to 300 to fleets so far and company car driver interest had waned but it is starting to pick up and we are cautiously optimistic for this year.

FN: Over the past couple of years you have removed 21,000 cars from daily rental as part of a structured policy, yet sales to this sector so far this year have risen. Have you reversed your strategy?

JT: Rental is up so far but it will flatten by half year, especially in April. We have no plans to put rental back in. Last year we saw a big drop in the first quarter, but this year we have a smoother plan which will make it easier to de-fleet.

However, rental as a whole is up year-on-year which is surprising considering the rise last year.

FN: In the final quarter of 2012 Vauxhall took the biggest share of true fleet sales, a position you want to achieve for the whole year within three years. Are you on track?

JT: As well as leading in the final quarter of last year, we were leading in true fleet for most of the first three months of this year until late on.

True fleet is still subdued and is down 5-10% in the first quarter but our share is up by one percentage point. Over the past six months we are number two in true fleet which we are happy with.

Also, around 98% of our true fleet volume is factory order; we’re not sat with thousands of cars in fields around the country.

FN: The all-new Insignia is due for launch later this year. How important is this car to your growth aspirations?

JT: The new car has moved on significantly in terms of quality so it will give us an injection although this sector has been in decline. Our growth will come from a mix of models, including some Mokka as availability improves; Astra, which is growing its share thanks to the Tech Line trim; and the new Adam.

Tech Line is helping and now accounts for 20% of our order take.

However, our strength is single-badge deals with large corporates. Volumes here are down, even though we have won some accounts, because they are still not buying cars.

Some accounts have 200-plus vehicles pending. We’ve noticed that fleet managers are changing roles more quickly than they have historically so new people come in and want to understand their policies before they start ordering cars. It’s more to do with these factors than the general economic conditions.

FN: You are still the only manufacturer to offer extended test drives across your entire range. How important is the three-day programme?

JT: Our conversion rate on test drives is around half, so we want to increase these. Last year we did around 4,000; this year we want to double that.

We have a fleet of more than 1,000 vehicles for the programme. Historically it was used by larger fleets but with changes to our website we are seeing all types of fleet coming on to the programme.

FN: Commercial vehicles are also a core part of your business. How well do you cross-sell into fleets between vans and cars?

JT: We do a reasonably good job. We have a single point of contact for cars and vans with regional van experts to provide specialist advice.

Around 20-25% of our cust-omers run both Vauxhall cars and vans, and van is often the lever on conquest opportunities.

The CV market is starting to grow and our share of true fleet is up a percentage point. Our two-year service intervals started in March which is a good opportunity for growth: it will reduce the maintenance bill for fleets by £500-600 over a four-year contract for lower mileage fleets.

We have also noticed fleets moving from flexi-hire back to full contract hire since the start of the year which makes us optimistic about the van sector.

Taylor claims that Vauxhall is “pretty much number one” when it comes to fleet consideration and sales on cars, but he accepts that the company is still only converting around half of its qualified leads.

He believes this can be improved by making Vauxhall an easier company to do business with, hence the recent changes to the website.

“The company car driver focus is one of the key pillars of our business,” he says. “If we can be more efficient in managing these people, there’s a huge volume opportunity.”

Factfile

Company Vauxhall
Fleet sales director James Taylor
2012 sales 232,255
2012 market share 11.36%
2012 fleet sales 136,819
2012 fleet share 13.34%

Judges’ comments

Vauxhall invented the compact seven-seat MPV and the Zafira Tourer takes it back to the top.

Spacious with lots of storage and innovative, clever seating, the modern look inside and out combines with practicality, competitive pricing, low CO2 and impressive running costs.

The Tech Line trim is the icing on the cake – perfect for fleets.